Sudan's Bashir to visit Egypt - Arab media
CAIRO, March 24 (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir plans to fly to Cairo on Wednesday in a show of defiance after the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted him on accusations of war crimes in Darfur, Arab media reported. Bashir risks arrest when he leaves Sudan because of the warrant issued for him by the Hague-based court earlier this month, and Sudanese Islamic scholars have warned him not to travel to an Arab summit in Qatar at the end of March.
But he is unlikely to face arrest in Egypt, which has close ties with its Sudanese neighbour and has called on the United Nations Security Council to suspend the ICC warrant.
"Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will visit Cairo tomorrow," Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera said on its website on Tuesday, quoting one of its correspondents. Al-Arabiya television reported he would meet with President Hosni Mubarak.
A Bashir visit to Cairo would be the Sudanese leader's second foreign trip since the ICC indictment and comes two days after he paid a brief visit to Eritrea.
Egyptian officials could not confirm the visit, but did say that Mubarak would be hosting an unnamed foreign visitor on Wednesday. A Sudanese embassy official said he had no information on a Bashir visit.
International experts say at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.7 million driven from their homes in almost six years of ethnic and political fighting in Darfur in western Sudan. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.
The Darfur conflict flared when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government, demanding better representation and accusing it of neglecting the development of the region.
The Sudanese government said shortly after the ICC decision that Bashir would defy the arrest warrant by travelling to the Arab summit in Doha -- and later confirmed the visit by formally accepting an invitation from the Qatari government.
But a series of senior Sudanese officials have released statements in recent days raising questions over the wisdom of the trip, prompting speculation that they were preparing the ground for a decision to send another representative instead.
On Sunday, Sudanese state media said local Islamic scholars had advised the president not to travel to the Qatar summit. A trip to Qatar is viewed as more risky for Bashir than a visit to Egypt or Eritrea because it involves travelling through international airspace.
Sudan also called in the French ambassador last week to demand an explanation of media reports that France would back the interception of any plane carrying Sudan's president abroad, a French diplomatic source said. Sudanese foreign affairs spokesman Ali al-Sadig has said Khartoum is satisfied that the French official named in the reports was misquoted. The Arab League and African Union, backed by China and Russia, have called on the U.N. Security Council to use its power to suspend the ICC indictment of Bashir. The United States, Britain and France have said they see no point in halting his prosecution. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
- Tweet this
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Reprints
Follow Reuters